Editing Elliot Lake (section)

====Mining legacy health and environmental concerns====
{{main|1974 Elliot Lake miners strike}}
In 1974, after growing concern from uranium miners about lung cancer and a lack of support from mine owners for sick workers, 1,000 uranium miners staged a wildcat strike.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=The strike that saved lives|url=https://magazine.cim.org/en/voices/the-strike-that-saved-lives/|access-date=2021-12-11|website=magazine.cim.org|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Lopez-Pacheco|first1=Alexandra|date=June–July 2014|title=The strike that saved lives|work=CIM Magazine|location=Montreal, Canada|url=https://magazine.cim.org/en/voices/the-strike-that-saved-lives/|access-date=22 April 2020}}</ref> The 14-day strike<ref name=":42">{{Cite journal|last=MacDowell|first=Laurel Sefton|date=2012|title=The Elliot Lake Uranium Miners' Battle to Gain Occupational Health and Safety Improvements, 1950–1980|url=https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/llt/1900-v1-n1-llt0160/1011330ar.pdf|journal=Journal of Canadian Labour Studies}}</ref> triggered a chain of events that led to the creation of a [[Royal Commission on the Health and Safety of Workers in Mines]] (informally known as the Ham Commission) <ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Elliot Lake wildcat strike led to key law|url=https://www.thesudburystar.com/2014/03/26/elliot-lake-wildcat-strike-led-to-key-law|access-date=2021-12-11|website=thesudburystar|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211218022921/https://www.thesudburystar.com/2014/03/26/elliot-lake-wildcat-strike-led-to-key-law |archive-date=2021-12-18 |language=en-CA}}(archive.org)</ref> which subsequently led to the creation of the Canada's ''Occupational Health and Safety Act'' of 1979.<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":2"/><ref name=":3">{{Cite news|date=17 April 2014|title=Workplace safety fight far from over, Steelworkers say|work=CBC|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/workplace-safety-fight-far-from-over-steelworkers-say-1.2613441}}</ref>

According to University of Toronto history professor Laurel Sefton MacDowell in her 2012 article 'The Elliot Lake Uranium Miners’ Battle to Gain Occupational Health and Safety Improvements, 1950–1980', the health concerns over radiation in the local environment are perpetual, and must be monitored perpetually.<ref>{{cite web|last=McDowell|first=Laurel Sefton|title=The Elliot Lake Uranium Miners' Battle to Gain Occupational Health and Safety Improvements, 1950–1980|url=http://www.lltjournal.ca/index.php/llt/article/viewFile/5678/6541|access-date=December 11, 2018}}</ref>

The 2017 performance of [[Rio Algom|Rio Algom Limited]] (a subsidiary of [[BHP]]), who own nine of the decommissioned mines, was described as "below expectations" by the [[Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|title=Regulatory Oversight Report for Uranium Mines, Mills, Historic, and Decommissioned Sites in Canada: 2020|url=https://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/the-commission/meetings/cmd/pdf/CMD21/CMD21-M34.pdf|journal=Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission|pages=160|access-date=2021-12-15|archive-date=2022-09-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220915124207/https://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/the-commission/meetings/cmd/pdf/CMD21/CMD21-M34.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission reported radium releases above limits at the Stanleigh effluent treatment plant, prompting engineering work plus increased site monitoring by the owners.<ref name=":5" />